N is for Not Christmas Odds & Sods!

These were sort of pencilled-in for the Christmas season, but aren't really Christmas stuff, with the possible exception of the Carol Singers, however it seems easier to post them now as civilian stuff (despite the connection some of them have with Nazi Germany!), over the festive season, than shove them down in Picasa's 1968 with the other eight folders of pending Christmas stuff, or elsewhere, or just leave them choking-up 2025 in the short queue, before the year's even properly started!

 

Vaguely nutcracker'y, but not really; no bushy beards, proper muskets, lack of overemphasized uniform elements, but they do have the huge epaulettes, this would appear to be a belt-buckle of some kind.

 

But it doesn't seem to have the robustness to survive on my trousers, where I've broken heavy die-cast buckles over the years, yet seems a little too whimsical to be part of a genuine military panoply, not even the historically-dressed 'old guard' many British regiments still have a few of, for ceremonials or KAPE - Keep the Army in the Public Eye.

 

So, my guess is some sort of costume jewellery or actual theatrical costume?  The clasp clearly hooks to a bar or rod similar to the belt loop, and the whole has been cast from three repeats of a single figure moulding, with the joins between them barely hidden, possibly using the lost-wax method - I'd add that the paint's probably been added by the/a later, hobbyist owner.

And while it looks brass, it doesn't really weight 'brass', so it may be a brass-coloured (alloy) base metal type material with brass clasp and copper or copper-bronze wire loop, which could be brazed, but are more-likely soft-soldered, suggesting it wasn't meant/designed to take any great strain, or long-term work-load . . . any ideas greatly appreciated?

These are a mystery also, they are composition, rather than bisque, and painted in a similar style to some of the Zang 30-40mm's we've seen here before, but with more effort on the faces. You can see from the damaged blue figure that the composite material is similar to Zang's too, however they came with some WHW figures (next section below) and may be Winterhilfswerk?

 

If they are WHW I'd love to know the set, if not, festive cake decorations from Zang are a possibility, or someone like them, of 17/18th century garbed carol singers or street musicians seems to be as likely? Equally, some French/Low Countries composition uses that plaster/pumice base? A real question mark?

While these ARE Winterhilfswerk, nine of a ten-set of Grimm's fairy-tale characters, with - from the left - Snow White and five dwarves, a lovely Puss-in-boots, a frog-kissing princess, a goose-girl, a generic witch, a very small 'giant' or hunter, a girl with blue birds (I remember some story about the bluetits sewing a dress or something?), whatever the Grimm version of Tom the piper's son is called (Tomas?) and Red Riding Hood on the right.

The box is probably not original, but I will keep them in it, it's a nice little fake snake-skin embossed paper from the 1940/50's (probably a gift box, from a watch or pen), and will keep them together until they inevitably have to be handed on, one day.

 

They are the typical bisque of such sets, looking quite like French fèves (which are traditionally hidden in tarts at this time of year), with a firing hole, that doubled as a receptor for the chemical fixer/glue blob we've seen on these before, for when badge-pins are added (two issues?), and the tenth turned up hiding under the faux-wool when I put them away - Sleeping Beauty, still holding her bobbin of spun thread!

Also, please note Dwarves six and seven are moulded on the rear of Snow White, albeit undecorated! And I don't know the set's issuer or issue date/s.

 

Finally came this witch-like, rather troglodyte, femme-sinister, who you can see from the chip at the baseline, is in a red terracotta, again reminiscent of other WHW sets/subjects, but would appear to be a beer (or Bier!) promotional, the monogram is not clear, but could be HB (Herforder Bier?) or RB, and whatever that answer, she may well be contemporary with the other pieces above, excluding the brass number!

 

Clearly she's holding the moniker'ed Stein, but what is in the crook of the other arm? A swaddled baby, some kind of brötchen or pretzel, or a sheaf of brewer's barley?

 

You can see she's barely 30mm to the more standard 40-mil of the other two, and more questions than answers with all four here, once I'd sat down and typed the blurb! So any help with these, sets, dates, issuers, origins, gratefully received!

L is for Late Show Report - Odds & Sods

Getting towards the end of the plunder posts from May's Toy Solder show in Whitton/Twicker's, and it's the bits and pieces which didn't really belong in any of the other posts, but there's a few interesting things among the detritus, dingbats and doobries!

 

Vehicle parts and hand-tools; these will all go to the spares zone until needed/matched with their owners, although of course I know the searchlight mount is Airfix and the horse furniture is Lone Star. The larger machine-gun is actually a copy of the early Airfix one from the Attack Force APC.

I think the two hands are from a Koala bear stuffed toy, they could be from a similarly described mole, but there was a range of tourist keepsake Koala's back in the 1960's, where the Koala's were stuffed rigid; more like taxidermy, rather than 'cuddly', and I suspect these hands are from one of those? We looked at a similar Kiwi from across the straits, here.

Mostly Christmas cracker charms and similar novelties, probably from the very cheapest crackers, or the mini 'tree decoration' crackers. The blue thing I don't know, the khaki piece - some kind of removable hatch from a vehicle or building, with a couple of larger novelties and an old Toy Show badge.

 

I seem to have a large tub of toy show badges, both my own 'earned attendance' examples and a bagful from Brian Carrick, once, and there's a quandry as to what to do with them as they slowly gather in an ever growing pile, they have the nostalgia of past shows, but no real use?

This was in one of the donation bags, and is interesting for being an obviously early piece of plastic, clearly a dolls house item, and it will need careful paint-stipping, there is a sprung-loaded mechanism, which allows the baby chair to switch between rocker, low chair and high-chair, for meal times and has a built-in potty! It's un-marked, and obviously I don't collect this stuff, but it clearly has some historical value, which is probably why it was given to me?

 

Large, rigid, foamed-rubber (or a similar material) scenics, I think they are modern, possibly Early Learning Centre (ELC) or a similar source, and certainly scaled for the larger figurines, they will nevertheless prove useful as future photo-props or display back-drops.

A few more scenics, there's a whole box of the orange log-cabins somewhere, and a growing post on them in the queue, as they come with or without paint, in two sizes, and from several 'names' as well as many generic sets, we saw them here previously in a Pikit Toys set, I think?

 

Lego bush/shrub, a Hong Kong poplar tree which has been home-painted, a pond in need of a railing, and a railing from something else, a vehicle, I think?

 

In Brian C's bag were these glass-tablet WHW tokens, not military, they consist of two from a set of landmark buildings, and a pair of runes, from that set. Ironic, as, being runes they are of interest to lexicographers and etymologists, but, they - the runic symbols - were, by the time of the set, being bowdlerized to provide iconography for the Nazi party and it's war-machine, with various civil and paramilitary unit formation signs, logotypes and SS divisional/unit flashes being based upon the old Nordic runes!

 

Both sets seem to come in many colours of glass, and a couple of variations of paint/layout/final decoration, so we can assume several glassworks were involved, either over time, as separate//repeat issues, or just in providing the hundred's of thousands, or millions, necessary for such a promotion.

These - from Trevor - must be from those mini tree-crackers, they are officially the smallest-scale item in the collection now, I believe, and while I have obviously, and absent-mindedly, placed Admiralty Arch upside down (I initially thought it was a crude 'White Tower' I think!), the icons of London's skyline are pretty clear, with St. Paul's Cathedral, The clock-tower for Big Ben and Tower Bridge being included in a set of otherwise unknown number.

Obverse and reverse of the Lone Star horse furniture from the articulated draft-house we saw here, with my earlier (brown plastic), damaged, collar compared to the new, complete one, and the non-seating saddle for cart/wagon/implement poles.

Many thanks again to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.

A is for And so to Sandown Park!

The ultimate cause of the failure of ITLAPD this year was a trip to NW Surrey two days earlier where I blew most of my budget on one item, but still managed to come away with enough stuff for a post.

What the budget was blown on, and no, I'm not telling you, but it wasn't cheap, and I had to talk myself into it with the help of the seller! It was the only item of Attack Force I still needed to find on a card, since finding the Centurion last year, and here are before and after shots.

There's not much of a difference, but I cleaned, ironed and wiped the card with a silicon furniture-cloth, to get a bit of depth back in the yellow. I also washed the landing-craft, but it's mostly dirt/dust, out of shot, on the flat surfaces.

This was only a fiver, it's pretty clean, and it's another tank transporter for that particular side-collection! With the die-cast collectors, box is everything isn't it, so a loose one is often to be found cheap, trailer is the same as the Airfix/Dinky/Lipkin (et al) ones, but the cab claims to be an International, although it's pretty fictional I think, the Aussies do have an International Harvester 'SF2670' tank transporter but it postdates this model by several decades!

Adrian gave me the five Les Higgins ECW's, they are exquisitely painted for 18/20mm figures, while the figure to their left is a rubber blow-mould from France, which being a latex type, has perished to a kind of chalky material, but still - mercifully - in one piece.

Bottom right are two other purchases, three of the smaller, better-sculpted, celluloid animals from Japan and a handful of Atlantic air force chaps, while the pair of guitar-playing Tim-Mee style GI's are what I have left after giving the rest away. They are/were issued by the US Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) unit.

I bought a job-lot a while ago, and as they didn't owe me much and various people were interested, they all got divvied-out, three to mates from a Facebook group and the other five at Sandown, with Brain C politely declining, only for Matt Their to show up and happily take the 'spare'!

Bottom left was a little handful Adrian brought to the show for me, and the stretcher is important, I can't find it now, but I know it has been [is] somewhere on the blog as a pale-blue-grey unpainted moulding, 'probably' a margarine premium, but I said at the time, I think, that I'd like it to be WHW, and I'm confident with Adrian's turning-up of this painted one, that it is from the set of police figures from the Gau of Berlin.

A set which has several versions, painted, unpainted and silver. The set being three Nazi's, four gendarme and one each fireman, traffic cop and this stretcher-team for a ten count, not of 'police' but 'public' or mixed emergency-service personnel?

I also got a nice tub of cereal premiums from Steve Vickers, among which were these Kellogg's types; almost a complete set of Sooty, and a similar Noddy 'bear', a couple of the Olà & Co., Magic Roundabout and four of the comedy pirates, along with an astronaut - because the astronauts are known to be manufactured by Crescent (along with other marked premiums - guards, cowboys, Robin Hood etc.), it's assumed all these are (not the Roundabout stuff - we know that's Tatra), but there's nothing to say so definitely.

The same lot also had a nice selection of the Asterix figures from Europe (although as I've said before, they are common enough over here to have probably had an issue in the UK, possibly with Wall's Ice Cream), the lower lot are a bit chewed-up (compare the blacksmiths), but in an interesting plastic colour.

These were interesting, but sad, as they heralded the passing of Dave Pomeroy back at the start of the year, sadly his estate has been broken-up, and I happened upon these workshop bits which consist of the blue blob (back left) which seems to be a wax moulding of a (pre-existing?) Brickwoods Brewery key-ring (variation seen on the Blog), which sort of makes sense as they were Portsmouth based?

I have no idea on the queen, but she's got a resin body with a wax-head, but carving wax, rather than the poured candle-wax of the Brickwoods chap. Next to her is a resin test-shot (?) of the lady hockey players from the Subbuteo (or Waddington's?) board game, and a grave-stone, which must be of similar history - playing piece or game accessory?

In front of them are two 'product' quality shots, both busts, both board-games I think? The round blob is a Buddha or casting of a novelty smoking-monkey, it's not clear, while the other piece has plaster still stuck in it, so would appear to be a mid-process piece from the prototyping stage? And it looks like it might also have origins as a novelty key-ring? So he obviously used existing stuff to try things out on? Or 'keep his hand-in'?

Now, I had the pleasure, or privilege of spending a very enjoyable afternoon at Mr Pomeroy's house, many years ago now, with John Begg, having afternoon tea, quizzing him on the Triang game pieces I'd inherited from him a year or so earlier, and asking about the relationship between Almark, Minimodels, Omnia et al., while being shown various swords, model soldiers and a suit of armour!

Dave was also connected to the artist Denis Knight (of the Lettraset rub-down historical picture books, also carried by Patterson Blick in the States and someone else in Europe), and the pair of them probably worked with or knew Charles C Stadden as they all seem to have been involved with the Minimodels plant at Havent at around the same time, and to have also worked with Subbuteo, Waddington's etcetera.

So, while not necessarily monetarily valuable, the above are a small slice of the hobby's historical archive, if you will, and it's very sad to learn of his passing.

At the end of the show I helped myself to a fiver's worth of hollow-cast from Adrian's 50p tray, it's all grist to the mill, and provides further samples for future thematic posts, particularly the Robin Hood pair, while the sentry with gas-mask case on his chest looks similar to the Zang composition version. There was also a clean gun from Crescent.

The Batman sticker is a genuine 1970's vintage PVC vehicle-graphic which went down well on another site, the Crescent WWI plastics are home-painted, so will need cleaning, but I knew I didn't have one and couldn't remember which one, so got all three, as I knew it was one of the 'advancing' poses - it's the one on the left! Pink frame is chuck-outs and floor sweepings!

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Contributions Etc . . .

Adrian Little over at Mercator Trading always stalls out at the Sandown Park show, and often has a bag, box, tub or tray of bits for me to look at, sometimes several! Some require shekels, some get sort of chucked at me and because they do I always try to purchase something too! He was there in September and this post covers all those sources and . . . possibly a bit more - one of the shots is a bit confusing!

The easy ones first! We saw the plastic pumps in the previous post and they might have been on Adrian's stall anyway, but the Lesney die-cast definitely was, and I shot the two by way of an instant comparison at the show, as while I have one, it's in storage and although I probably included it in the Matchbox posts back in 2012/13 (?) I can't be arsed to look for it when this shot is enough! Note the Hong Kong maker (probably Tai Sang) has changed the finials to Shell branded pumps from the Esso of Lesney.

Below them is a bunch of Mocherettes (as you must by now realise I call them), nothing rare here, but the Egyptian is useful and the AWI (indeed all the Wild West with Kinder bases) are harder to find and come in several finishes, so I may or may-not need him to build or complete a set? The larger one is a more modern Westair, and is soft whitemetal, rather than the die-cast zamac of the earlier, smaller figures.

Some interesting stuff here, the top row are - I suspect - modern'ish aftermarket/garage figures painted-up and based, but they could be older and/or rarer, I just don't recognise them and there are many whitemetal railway figures out there.

The middle row has, from the left; three Horten for Trix and Britains Lilliput, then three which I belive are Comet/Authenticast (but probably not Eriksson sculpts), an unknown who could go with either of the preceding trios, but is probably another Horten for Trix/Britains, the final four are Hornby/Dinky 'Dublo'.

The bottom row is less clear, did Lilliput have a post box, if not probably Wardie/Mastermodels? The aeroplane could be from a board game, but I suspect with the three-colour paint-job, it may be a 'toy' toy for a dolls-house playroom? The gun is from a ship-model and is likely to be a commercial barrel on a homemade carriage.

This is lovely, and I was touched Adrian had saved it for me, as I'm sure he has customers for it, it's a slip-cast bisqueFlaK or Pom-Pom gun, and probably a German Winterhilfswerke (WHW) piece, the partial mark seems to be in the DIN font, which would tie-in nicely, but just a lovely thing!

I tried to photograph these through the bag, but as you can see the images were pretty awful, so I got them out! It's obviously the tale of Hansel & Gretel, with the witch and a cat which I don't remember getting a mention, but witch = black cat (familier)!

Plaho (Plastik und Holz - plastic & wood) were a state organ of the VEB system, build on the firm of Herpat in Steinach, in East Germany, and you can see the composition ancestry in these figures, we may even have seen the Lineol (or Elastolin?) originals here at Small Scale World . . . and courtesy of Mercator Trading I think?

This is where I get confused, it's also a poor image, sorry. The bag bottom right was definitely from Adrian, but I'm not sure if the rest were, or if I bought a bag of bits at the show and sorted them down to this image, then including some of Adrian's stuff, but I'll proceed as if it was all from him!

We'll look at the better bits in a minute, although it's all pretty interesting, but now I'm making more effort to get the Giant Or What? Blog turning a little more regularly (about 12 articles in the ready queue), it will mostly be seen there, but what can you see here?

A bag of smaller farm and zoo animals, various Giant and sub-Giant copies of Knights, Romans and Wild West, a small bag of Quaker Gladiators, a bit of Marx-Blue Box 1:64th American 'HO' stuff, three Tudor Rose farm animals in 'styrene, a nice vintage 'ivorene' charm, Manurba/Tallon trucks, Spencer Smith Nappy, Montaplex medievals; all sorts!

These are both lovely; the cowboy whistle in two colours is one of only a few novelty whistles I have, of which only two others are figural I think, a lion and a . . . bird? While the Sikh sentry is a very uncommon Malleable Mouldings figure in soft polyethylene polymer, taken from an old lead-solid Holgar Eriksson sculpt.

The whistle from a couple more angles (we'll see the Sikh again soon) and some modern gaming stuff (bottom right); I think the horse might be Minifigs, the pack animals are nicer, but probably quite new?

Top left however, is of more interest, and the left-hand figure came from Adrian, the set of four were a coincidental purchase at the same show and could have been in yesterday's post, but they ended-up here! lead solids around OO-guage/23mm.

I am sure I know the name of the game, and possibly the maker, as I took notes on one at SAS Auctions, when viewing years (14 or 15) ago, but can't find the note, they are (I'm sure!!) from an Edwardian board game with a simple name like 'Spies', 'Secret Agents' or 'Private Eyes' and I favour the latter one, maybe 'Private Dicks'? No sniggering at the back.

I'm guessing these must be French bazaar things; bags of unpainted 'ethylene mouldings of earlier often French but sometimes copies of Timpo, Elastolin or Spanish figures/products from the 1970/80's? The odd thing here is that the two adult chickens and the ducklings are quite realistic, while the adult duck and chicks are quite cartoony? But a really nice, very clean sample!

While these - being also a nice sample - will need a bit of research I haven't done yet. There are several sets of these, and similar poultry, some of which are claimed to be Prior premiums, others not, there seems to be a set like these, a set with nests and a set on more elaborate foliage, with several sets on plainer flat bases, while a couple of larger raptors have no bases, just big feet!

Most are a stiff, dense 'Macau' PVC and seem to have come through Injectaplastic of Portugal, so may also 'be' Jouets Super Plastic (JSP) of France, while some seem to have been premiums for other companies such as Arena, Aurea, Azur, Bisco, or Ehrmann, but some are softer rubbery PVC. Prior don't actually seem to have handled the birds at all!

So, more work needed! But, lovely toy figures.

Many thanks to Adrian for the bits he gave me and the bits he saved for me to look, at all of which I took - at well below retail - and the bits I bought on top, all-in-all a bargain!

C is for Catch-up - Sandown Park - May

After the relative frugality of March's show the May show at Sandown park was a bit of a boot-filler, and that despite the fact that Wilton (Plastic Warrior show) had been a polymer-fest two weeks earlier!

Where to start! Top left to bottom right? One of the 'home cast' guards, a French hollow-cast of an Indian army soldier, two Zang, a Dinky mechanic and some bits; the die-cast 'plane will be from a board game, worker is Wardie Mastermodels, part of a Kellogg's puzzle jeep and a baby!

The aluminium flats have been looked at now, the corn stook is Speedwell, two - probably board game - motorcycle flats (one lead the other possibly die-cast) and a bunch of WHW's also now properly dealt with (and follow-upped on!). The above were all saved for me by, or came from the stall of Adrian Little.

Also from Adrian the two upper rows; I Blogged the Coma copies soon after retiuning to the Blog afetr Dad's passing, the Romans have been covered before, both PVC and ethylene and the chariot, plus copy, but they still need to be all brought together.

Bottom row may have been Adrian as well, I can't remember, but they are I think generic Hong Kong copies of Monograme, rather than the thicker-based ones Kent Sprecher has ascribed to one of the Marx HK factories.

Seen them a while ago - these were part of a big 'score' of rack-toys I managed to secure in mid-afternoon, long after everyone else had been past or over the guy's stall so I hate to think what I missed!

Came from all over; Smoky the Bear tourist trophy and flat sheep, followed by the robot and two aliens from Wilton, Mr Men and another of the rack-toy stash - all covered in the last few months and the floor sweepings were a bit poor, with a Space Marine back-pack and an F1 aerofoil!

Again from the rack-toy stall, and again, I think we've seen most of them now. I think the basket-ball players may be cake-decorations, but they could be from a board game? I've already fixed the hand!

I think there were 17 sets in all, and we've seen about a third of them since July, the rest will come, over time as time allows or posts require. I anonymised them in this shot as I intended to publish this back at the time, but as you know I took some time off and they are now broken-up and put-away.

The May show was going to be two posts, but with stuff that's already published and so on, I threw this bitty video together, god knows what the Youtube regulars will make of it, but it's the only way of getting it up here, so there it is!

A couple of things I shot on Adrian's stand, the lovely privet-hedge horse and a long shot of the selling which takes place in the hour between the gates opening to the car park and the doors opening to the hall. And yes; malleable has two 'L's!

That last shot on the slide-show/video thingy; it is interesting for showing the two strides of the Malleable Mouldings marines, with the third guy at full stride, the other two taking shorter steps.

Note also that these must have come from an out-painter, as she (they were almost all female) has given-up painting the first figure mid-way through the white with the red, black and silver still to come, yet has added the gold to the helmet, over the [unfinished] white?

M is for More on WHW's

A few points on Wintershilfswerk figures, either confirming previous observations or not previously covered.

I picked these falschrimjager up at Sandown last Saturday, from Adrian's rummage tray of WHW's and because I couldn't remember which one I had at home, hollow or flat base (upper pair), I selected both, only to find on Sunday that mine was completely different (right hand figure in lower two images) with a 'penny' base!

This confirms what we saw with the grenade thrower - three distinct issues. And the differences are greater here than they were with the grenadier; with my solid being joined (as a moulding) down the shins, while the two half-and-half glued-figures have a gap between the legs.

The one with a hollowed-out base is slightly miss-aligned, so the photo's had to be shot at weird angles to get him to stand up and make them all the correct height which - as you can see - differs too.

Meanwhile, Adrian had found these and put them to one side for me, they are unused factory 'blanks' from a set of bisque service personnel; a set I'm currently unfamiliar with. You can see how they are each numbered under the place where the pin-badge is affixed, while you can also see how they are hollow slip-cast figures.

I have two from a set I do know - Industrious Germany - which was issued in March 1939 as a set of 20 different professions and trades, of which I have above the fisherman (new acquisition) and the miner (we may have seen before here?). And you can see how the pin-badge is attached with a blob of chemical-fixer which may be an early two-part epoxy type polymer?

These too, seem to have had different issues (one being matt-finished, the other glazed), so take the date with a pinch of salt - look what happened to the accepted date of the Armed Forces plastic series!

R is for Return - to Nazi Flats

So we looked at these a while ago and I asked whether they might be post-war, maybe East German or Russian parodies of Nazi's as part of some propaganda exercise, possibly cigarette premiums, but I had shot them hurriedly, at a show, and had not had time to investigate them properly.

Now that I have looked at them closely (they are in the collection!) the only fact remaining from the earlier musing would seem to be . . . they might have been cigarette premiums! Everything else is up for grabs!

The first clue is that they are all marked DRGM (Deutsches Reich Gebrauchs Muster = a minor patent or registered design), which was [one of] the German equivalent[s] (they had dozens) of the English 'Pat.Pend' or French/Italian Depose, and which ran from before the Nazi rule, until after it, so wherever they came from, the evidence says it was within the confines of either 'greater Germany' or the later West Germany?

The next clue is that the flag has a large swastika clearly visible upon it, and if you're wondering why I obliterated the swastikas on the Atlantic set but not here; it's simply that the Atlantic set is a weird modern 'homage' to a vile, murderous, militarised, yet 'civilian' political regime, while these - as we will see - are probably 'historical artifacts' - it's all about context!

Another possible clue is the short arms on the flag's swastikas, which could point to something? Did the SA use short arms; production likely during the NAZI period, or did the artist not know the correct dimensions because it was so new; production likely before the Nazis came to power?

Swastikas are also suggested on several arm-bands, and the reason this is such a clue is that the showing of Nazi iconography was made illegal soon after the end of the war as part of the de-Nazification effort, which means we can probably rule out West Germany, as we have now ruled-out the East.

Which leaves the figures as German-made and set in or just before the Nazi's came to power? Here we see that the helmeted figures have the side-studs for mounting things like face -guards/visors on, and - while the tops have been rendered slightly flatter by removal from the runner - still, the lines of the helmet are the squarer one of WWI Stosstruppen 'Boxheads', rather than the later, rounder/cleaner-lined one which 'soldiered-on' with the West German fire-brigade until quite recently.

Other clues include the grey-green coated figures; the Germans used a very similar coating on their steel training ammunition to prevent surface-rust (arrowed - where the varnish seal was broken extracting the black-powder) in storage, while it is a neutral varnish to the figures green, the thinness, with metal showing through, and the all-over, thin-wash, one-coat nature is the same, it's not conclusive evidence, it's a clue, and it allows me to show you a rare'ish piece of militaria!.

Bit of a departure mid-post, but I'd better explain; The rounds (stained pink for an unknown reason; mould inhibitor, 'live' status designator?) are wooden, they would not have travelled far, or done much damage, but at short ranges (indoor or pipe-ranges) might have marked a target, while on exercise; they would have provided realistic 'kick', noise and smoke/smell, and could launch rifle-grenades without mishap. However, the hollow in the wooden bullet, would have caused drag-turbulence and lost momentum very quickly - they are basically blanks!

The cases are steel (cheaper than brass; by '43 they were losing the war) and compared here with a modern 5.56mm SA80 blank-round (which is brass). They are sitting in the magazine re-loading clip they came with, which is very similar to the ones we used with SLR's in the 1980's (but then the cartridge bases are near identical on both rounds) but this is stainless, or a non-ferrous steel-like alloy , while ours were steel, painted gun-black and would rust in damp pouches!

They were de-activated many years ago by yours truly, who put the black powder to good use, that is; if you consider Tobin and myself nearly blowing our faces off with a home-made chair-leg cannon and then almost drilling a large hole in my brother's head with a tractor-wheel bolt-grenade 'good use', otherwise the black-powder was recklessly used in haste, dangerously, but all three of us had a brilliant afternoon - 41 years ago, summer half-term!

So, back to the figures; there are several possible scenarios, the first (1) still being that they were piss-taking parodies?

But now of German origin (rather than the Ost Deutsche or Soviet proposed last time) and from someone on the 'Left', satirising the early Nazi's; all that prancing about with Ernst Rohm and his mob of bully-boy, brown-shirt, boy-scout SA, happy-campers! And most of the figures are wearing the little SA kepi?

Being manufactured before they came to power, in which case it's a fair bet everyone involved in these figures may have ended-up in a concentration camp, a - likely - fate which would add a certain poignancy to the set.

But then -  Rohm was a bit of a short-arse? If the 'Hitler' character (third from left?) is a piss-take of Rohm, these could be SS or NSADP-sanctioned (2) piss-takes of the SA, in order to prepare the ground for The Night of the Long Knives? Or even - referring back to the same, in order to explain/excuse [propagandise] it, after the event?

I can only find this and while he was banned by the Nazi's, he wasn't killed, and his style is different?

Or . . . (3) that they were comedy figures - but possibly based on characters that would have been known to the populace at the time, perhaps from a newspaper strip-cartoon?

Taking the Mickey out of one's own military in order to humanise it (especially when it's rightly regarded as the instrument of a totalitarian, fascist dictatorship, busy 'disappearing' people in the middle of the night . . . or broad daylight!) has a rich history . . .

. . . one thinks of Old Bill and Woodbine Willy in WWI, the 'Two Types' in WWII, or Bilko, Beetle Bailey, Dad's Army, It 'Aint Half Hot Mum, ITMAR and The Navy Lark on radio or MASH, and all the great double acts; Abbot & Costello, Bud & Lou, Laurel & Hardy had/did military parodies?

This guy almost looks 'familiar', was he one of the characters in a series of Nazi propaganda posters, or have I just Blogged him too much?!!

Lined-up with a few known-WHW's, were they - indeed - (4) comedy WHW's?

From the left we have a bisque miner from a set of profession/occupation broach-figures (pin rusted to almost nothing), a composition pilot with string-hanger hole in his floatation collar (no Mae West 'boobies' for the Luftwaffe!) possibly from Elastolin or Lineol (?), two of the aluminium figures, one polished, the other coated, an unpainted WHW policeman, a painted 'historical uniform' figure (I seem to recall they were issued as Guard Regiments of Berlin) and one from the set we looked at the other day.

The police set has been tied-in to the Gau of Berlin (as issuer) also, but there are actually several versions, painted, unpainted and heavier-based, so like the commoner 'combat' set, there seems to be a history  of multiple issues and/or multiple issuers behind the set.

Finally (5) they could be 'just' post-war parodies, getting out before the ban on Nazi regalia and iconography took hold? But I think - now - we are looking at something earlier.

Unifying the animal samples for a comparison/completion shot or two I can report that they are all unmarked with the exception of the rhinoceros which is clearly marked 'FOREIGN', suggesting they (some or all?) were imported into the UK at some point, where they would most likely have been Christmas cracker novelties.

The similarities in base are unmistakeable, but the animals - both farm/domestic and zoo/wild are of a slightly poorer finish, so a late use of older moulds perhaps? Hanomag and Fokker are still going strong, Elastolin survived until the 1990's, no reason why a small toy-maker or metal-fabricator from the Nazi-era shouldn't have dug it's old animal moulds out in the 1950's or '60's and run them again?

Mine have come as two, small, mixed lots (farm & zoo together both times), possibly with the Rhino' separate (I've rather lost track of them all by blogging them in the wrong order!), so it's all only conjecture, but I think a common-source is quite likely, especially as flats are often ID'able from the nuances of the bases, not that these - injection-moulded alloy - are exactly 'traditional' zinn flats!